How Pharma Can Create Environments That Go Beyond Being Just Cutting Edge

At the 2016 BIO International Convention in San Francisco (June 6-9), I had the opportunity to moderate an extremely impressive panel focused on how companies can create environments that go beyond being just cutting edge.

A Commentary On Biopharma's Current Boston Fixation

Merck recently announced its plans to lay off R&D workers at three East Coast sites; a move that will supposedly affect less than 10 percent of discovery, preclinical, and early development employees in Kenilworth and Rahway, N.J., and North Wales, PA.

What Is At The Heart Of Biopharma Backlash? I’m dismayed by the ongoing negativity that dominates much of the mainstream media’s coverage of our industry. I admit there are significant opportunities for improvement and that mistakes have been made, but what about solutions?

Will Kite Pharma Soar Higher In The Engineered T-Cell Race?

During Kite Pharma’s (NASDAQ: KITE) company presentation at the February 2015 BIO CEO Investor’s Conference in New York, Arie Belldegrun, M.D., created a noticeable buzz among attendees when touting the latest developments coming out of the company he founded back in 2009.

Is BIO's Annual Meeting Too Big?

As a past BIO educational planning committee co-chair, I am well aware of the amount of effort that goes into the successful planning one of our industry’s biggest gatherings — BIO International’s Annual Convention. Typically drawing more than 15,000 attendees from nearly every U.S. state and over 65 countries, this year’s event took place June 6 – 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. And while I have always been a big fan of BIO, this year’s event made me wonder: Is BIO too big to be effective? After all, the event boasts having 7 product zones, 18 educational tracks, 6 super sessions, 2 keynotes, and 3 fireside chats. That doesn’t even include the roughly 4,000 companies represented at the event, 1,800 of which typically exhibit.

How To Achieve Excellence In A Biopharma Supply Chain

When Walt Kelly put the quote “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US” on the first Earth Day poster in 1970, it is doubtful he envisioned it applying to the biopharmaceutical industry. Yet, for David Lowndes, SVP of supply chain management at Shire Pharmaceuticals, the quote is pertinent to how his company approaches working with supply chain partners.

Who Will Move Biopharma Beyond The Cutting Edge?

Biopharma challenges, such as developing innovative therapeutics at a price and cost we can all afford, might benefit from an outsider’s perspective — especially if we ever hope to push our industry to a point somewhere beyond the cutting edge.

Who Will Move Biopharma Beyond The Cutting Edge At BIO 2016?

When you think of companies that revolutionized the way business is done, it is important to consider the attributes of their founders. Often they had gained life experience from working in businesses best be described as tangential to those they eventually disrupted. As a result, these “outsiders” not only brought a different perspective toward tackling problems in these industries, their wisdom to do things differently than in the past resulted in ideas that forever changed the world. For example, Malcom McLean was the founder of a trucking company.

7 Secrets VC Investors Want Biopharma Heads of R&D To Know: People And Profits - Part 4

When a pharma is divesting an asset, how important is it to take the asset and the people (i.e., the champions and asset experts) when determining your capital allocation? When do you say that the people have to be included, and what are some of the considerations on the intellectual capital, besides the actual product?